Want Pre500 tone? Here's how to get it!

[Anonymous]

This isn't Pre500 tone specific but, if you want to get an interesting mid/high-mid boost in your tone wire a .01uf/600V cap in parallel with R242. You can just hook the leads right under the resistors leads and solder. Even wire a SPST switch in with it to take it back to stock.

It's a basic Treble-Peak circuit but it's farther down the signal chain and adds some neat harmonics and a bit of chime.

That's pretty cool! I wonder how it would sound with if you also dropped R212 down to 470k...

 

[R_ADKINS80]

How far did you get with your mods Rich?

Knocked it over the left field wall and went all the way with it. I have played several rectifiers and this by far destroys them all. I am going to order up some resistors and caps of different values so i can play around with it to see what i can come up with.

 

[JCDenton6]

Sweet, so far I'm really digging the way my Triple is sounding, just sheer aggression and obliteration! :twisted:

 

[R_ADKINS80]

yeah I pulled the v3 cathode resistor tonight and jumped it but I think I may put that one back in......it's just not as "brutal" as it was the other night lol.

 

[R_ADKINS80]

Ok I have finally settle on a series of mods to my liking. Granted most of you guys are working with 2ch amps and mine is a 3ch. I have v1-3 cathode resistors pulled and jumpered, the cap clipped off of v2 and I gotta say.....The amp has more growl, cut and authority with the 2.2M resistor jumped in the v1 tone circuit. Both orange and red channels are running 25kL presence pots and 1M linear gain pots. I run the treble and presence at around 1 o'clock and the gain between 9 and 10 o'clock with the bass around 1 and the mid around 10-11 and this amp is just breathing fire and crushing with tone. I already have one of my buddies with another 3ch triple lined up for mods. T'was a good night of tone chasing.

 

[JCDenton6]

Has anyone else tried this with their amps yet? Just looking for any extra info I might have missed.
Cheers!

 

[APEMAN]

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[R_ADKINS80]

Highly recommend anyone doing this to a 3ch rectifier. It turns it into a fire breathing rampaging beast!

 

[R_ADKINS80]

I also would like to add that I have played FJA and VooDoo modded rectifiers and I prefer the tone I'm getting out of my modded Triple to either of them.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

if you really want to know one big difference that hasn't been talked over here you just have to listen to him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10mVhB-eMBs

because if you really listen....you only have to look at the different schematics.... its all there.... almost no unknown miracles....

(someone should read this 14 pages and sum it up.... lol .... sometimes someone finds something on page 5 and the next one finds it again at page 12 L O L - read and listen, thats all).

Good luck!

I'm not sure what you mean by the one big difference....?

 

[APEMAN]

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[JCDenton6]

That is crazy interesting, I never would've thought about that.
I heard of changes to the orange clean in revisions F/G from Rev C/D but haven't come across any reliable schematics for a Rev C/D, do these changes really affect the high gain tones that much?

 

[APEMAN]

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[R_ADKINS80]

So I put my amp back to stock to try and make all this stuff switchable.....amp sounds totally stock. I wired up switches to bypass the cathode resistors and the 2.2M resistor in the v1 tone circuit. However, when you flip the switches there is no tone change. Weird. I even checked everything with my ohm meter and the components DO get shorted when the switches are flipped. If they are getting shorted, how is there ZERO tone change?

 

[Anonymous]

So I put my amp back to stock to try and make all this stuff switchable.....amp sounds totally stock. I wired up switches to bypass the cathode resistors and the 2.2M resistor in the v1 tone circuit. However, when you flip the switches there is no tone change. Weird. I even checked everything with my ohm meter and the components DO get shorted when the switches are flipped. If they are getting shorted, how is there ZERO tone change?

Which 2.2M resistor? Also, 100 ohms is pretty small. It's honestly possible that it's too small to notice a difference (I never tried setting up a switching system to A/B).

In the past I tried very hard to find the "big difference" between the old 3CH and the 2CH Rectos, because I couldn't get a good lead tone from my 3CH. There are some things that you cannot change like e.g. the different PT and OT, but there are differences like these "recharge time"-thing that make huge differences in the circuit.
You have to think of it like this... the earlier you add something like voltage breakdown in the preamp circuit the more "dirt and fizz" you get out of it. Therefore it is important for the early stages to be supplied with stable voltage. Loud bassy riffing sucks very much energy, and produces much flubbyness if you increase those values you reduce the amount of flubb getting out of the preamp.

Thanks for pointing this out! It never fails to amaze me how much one or two components can really change things. My clone is a little too stiff, and I think this might be why. I'm going to try dropping the filtering just a little and see what happens.

 

[APEMAN]

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[Anonymous]

...I think you guys are getting confused about fact that there are 3CH and 2CH people here....
[2.2M = pre gain filter]

There's the other 2.2M that goes to ground at the same junction.

 

[fireonhigh]

for the people who do not wish to deal with all the tech? call mesa/ask tell what can be done.easiest cheapest way to do it,i have #7**,revision f,now its revision C,,,also mike went through the amp,its like 1992 again,,,CALLL THEM, best service in the industry,,,i might add my clean channel is dead forever..and yes im glad :twisted:,,,if you send them the amp,it must be out of the head shell,tubes out as well,just pack them in there safe,get lots of bubble wrap ,make it a beachball,and double box it,they will send your amp back to you in a custom foam enclosure,,keep it for later if ever!! needed to send back.again just call mike and ask for yourself,i did this 3/4years ago,i will never sell it

 

[JCDenton6]

for the people who do not wish to deal with all the tech? call mesa/ask tell what can be done.easiest cheapest way to do it,i have #7**,revision f,now its revision C,,,also mike went through the amp,its like 1992 again,,,CALLL THEM, best service in the industry,,,i might add my clean channel is dead forever..and yes im glad :twisted:,,,if you send them the amp,it must be out of the head shell,tubes out as well,just pack them in there safe,get lots of bubble wrap ,make it a beachball,and double box it,they will send your amp back to you in a custom foam enclosure,,keep it for later if ever!! needed to send back.again just call mike and ask for yourself,i did this 3/4years ago,i will never sell it

Did they really do this for you? I talked with Tien from Mesa a few months ago about modding my 2ch Triple and he talked to Mike B for me and he doesn't recall modding a later revision 2 ch recto to Rev C specs... :?

If you have the chance, would you be willing to take some pictures of the PCB in your amp?

 

[JCDenton6]

So after much experimentation, bugging some of you with pm's (sorry guys), and awesome conversations with both Mike B and George M this week, I figured out why my recto was just shy of the tone I was chasing:
I soldered the LDR's I hastily removed back in (LDR 3, it had to be there per Mike B, and LDR 10 ,), I noticed the difference immediately, I got the drive and bite that I was missing.

Now after jumping the gun in the past, now I can say I'm happily getting pre 500 tone :twisted: